Recording device



J. KLE PAC AND J. KVARDA.

RECORDING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 22, 1919.

1,338,984. Patented Mar. 16,1920.

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RECORDING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 22. 1919.

2 SHEEYTS-SHEET 2.

' Jrwemib \x 1 JoJop/o fizz vac: 6586a Jan/ y jfuarala JOSEPH KLEPAC AND JAE? ARDA, OF NEN YORK, N. Y.

EECQR-DING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent- Patented Mar. 16, 1920.

Application filed April 532, 1919. Serial No. 291,810.

To all whom 2'25 may concern:

Be it known that we, Josnrrr Knnrao and Janna Ivanna, citizens of the Republic 01: Czaecho Slovakia, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of Ilew York, have invented certain new and useful I .iprovements in Recording Devices, oi which the following is specification.

This invention has relation primarily to recording devices with particular reference to a device for egistering. recording or oth erwise indicating the dynamic force of a blow or impact applied to any object selected to receive the same.

Another object of the invention is to provide device of this'character which may be utilize to register or record upon any suituble medium the dynamic force which is plied to the :eys of a recording piano or other i istrument for the purpose of securing a record for subsequent reproduction of the amount of dynamic force applied to the keys of when the same is played by an artist whose playing it is desired to record, thus obtain that desideratum, namely, resultant record whereby in the ininutest detail oi i la; artist may be Another object of the invention is to prodevice of this character which indelicately supported movable memed to sweep over a series of segments or through the last segment contacted to cause actuation of an electrically operated recorddevice means however being provided to insure completion of the. circuit only when the member comes to rest at its limit movement so as not to actuate any other recording device than the one come to the position assumed by the at its limit of movement. 'tion to the foregoing, this invention compreheuds im n'ovements in the deta'Ts construction and arrangement of he? latter described and parforth in the appended claims. accompanying crawings in which and corresponding parts are desigy the same character of reference out the several views in which they mechanically reproduced.

to complete an electrical circuit.

Figure l is a view in side elevation of the indicating portion of our device.

Fig. 2 is a view thereof in horizontal section with wiring connection.

Figs. 3 and 4 aresections taken on the line of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a view of a fragment of a paper record for reproducing pianos and frag- Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic view showing a modification of our apparatus, and

Fig. 10 is a view of a fragment of a rec'- ord made with ourmodified apparatus.

lVith reference toFigs. ll or" the drawings, 10 indicates a quadrant shaped plate and 11 a bracket mounted substantially centrally relative to the curvededge thereof to pivotally ueport a primary member or lever ii hammer head 13 is mounted upon one end'o'f the lever and a weight 14: upon the other, said weight being slidable toward and away from the pivot to balance the lever. are arranged ciroumferentially upon the face of the plate, and a metallic flange 16 is mounted upon theedge of the plate with a right angle portion 17 directed toward the contacts. A light switch arm or secondary member 18 is pivotally mounted upon the bracket 11 for movement about'the center movement of the lever 12, and a spiral ring 19 is provided having its-inner end arm to retain the latter in engagement with the lever 12. A. weight 20 is shlttably mounted on the arm 18 for a'purpose to be presently seen, and a transversel extending A series of contacts or segments 15 Y anchored and its outer end secured to the mounted upon the extremity of the arm 18 to extend transversely thereof and in engagement with the inner surface of the portion 17 of the flange, said porion having a plurality of notches 23 formed therein, one notch opposite each contact 15. A light spring mounted on the member 21 engages the pawl to urge the pawl against the notched flange. The hammer head rests upon a cushion 25 and a stop 26 may be provided to limit upward movement thereof.

It will be apparent that it a blow is directed upon the primary member or le\'er 112? to urge the same upward the switch arm in) orsecondary member will be carried with it until the head 13 engages the stop where upon the member 18 is free to continue Ward under its own inertia until gray overcomes its inertia and it returns to normal position. The highest position reachc. by the member 18 will indicate the force of the blow. The impact may be applied downward upon the hammer head and the rebound thereof will cause the arm 18 to ll upward. There are many Ways in which the blow Whose force is to be deter;- d may be received upon the lever, and s *eral examples will be given later. The essential ob; ject is to cause the lever 12, and arm 18 to travel upward and to bring said arm successively opposite the segments 15. As istitlllil the maximum height reached by the cadet the arm indicates the force of the blow. To record this fact We may provide an arrange ment consisting of a plurality of electromagnets, one of which is shown at 2T having one terminal connected to the flange 1e and the other to one of the segments. Thus,

an electro-magnet is provided for each ment and connected thereto, all of: said magnets however being connected in common to the flange 16. An ari'nature 28 is provided for each inagnet; being pivotal y mounted and provided at its opposite 'end with a stylus or other recording instrument to make a. mark or puncture upon a strip of unitormly .m-oving paper 29. It Will be obvious that it the struck the arm 18 will travel series of contacts 15 and the 1 slide along the notched flange 1 assuming the position shown in Fig. 3. As soon as the arm 18 has reached its upward limit of movement and begins to descend the pa *1 22 will engage in the next lower notch and as a result thereof the arm 18 will travel along the series of contacts 15 and the pawl 22 will slidealong the notched flange 17 assuming the position shown in Fig. 3. As soon as the arm 18 has reached its upward limit of movement andbegins to descend the pawl 22 will engage in the next lower notch and as a result thereof the arm 18 will be shifted laterally toward the segments causing the contact member 21 to engage the segment ate therebetneen.

n away Ironi the'center, t i

directly opposite the notch :23 in whirh the pawl is engaged as shown 1-. A circuit will. then be completed through a source or" current provided and through the flange 1?, thence through the pawl 22 and arm 18 to the contact member 21, thence entering the segment 15 engaged by said cont member and then passing through the asso ciated electromagnet 27 baclrto the source oi current, thereby energizing said eleetio magnet causing the armature 28 to rise and consequently carry the stylus downward into engagement with the strip of paper. It will be obvious that the mash upon the paper Will be spaced away from the margin to a distance correspondin to the dist upward through which the arm 18 tra the lowermost segment being connected Wltil the electromagnet adjacent one margin of the paper and the uppermost segment con-- nected to the electromagnet adjacent the op posits margin the other segnientsybeing sociated with the magnets lyi intermed1 Gther recoleing than that set forth herein may be employed to advantage and hence we do not desire to limit ourselres to the specific form of recording mechanism nor to reconnnend this in preference to any other. t will be noted that the lowermost segment is located opposite the stop'26 thereby permittin ondary member to travel upwarr .0 distance before recording a contatth i to prevent very light blows from. i; corded and the apparatus may be ELGJUSI :l to operate under any n'iinimuin of term desired by adjusting the r-reight'itl and spri w 19. it will be apparent that the i center of gravity of the i varied by shitting the Web justed to retain the arm n In View or" the "foregoing it will be obvious I] ,1 c that this device eminently ada 'ited l? in connection with recording piano music and to illustrate the n '1 l use-d *e have shown in a conventional a. mat; at 30 and at opposite sides and 32 containing recorc our apparatus. re will be seen tl at the r r longitudinall tion to sepai the left bani. trom the op 'iosite side. forations shown. it iii 1 b mar be held for a per od c of different not. '11 the to the man n31 hub 13 mark 33 adjacent the center of the strip 31 this indicates that the blow is a me On the other hand. the n'izirk rike the chord shown by the orations )6 would indicate that the blow moderately soft. With reference to the up 32 it ill be seen that the run indicated the perforations o? in the treble clot vary in loudness increasin with each note to a. maximum point and g with each note as shown by series 0.- recordations at 38 in the strip The remaining notes at the treble clef indicated at 2-39 at different points dong the chromatic scale but obviously are or with the we struck very softly and l s tions e0 which 3 shown by the recordsll located ad 'eceut the lefthand margin 0 the strip 32 and in lonudiiml zilinement. For the purpose of convenience e. have shown two strips to indicate the record AtiOIi tor the bass and treble clet although it will he obvious that only one rip may be employed iii desired. Furthermore, the use of separate strip may be obviated by upon the me recordations perforations the m ark ot the. slot t'orce of the chord.

These records made by our device may be duplicated from the master record to seer of copies, and these copies are in player pia os of the type king the record utions lirecty record or strip 30. and the y be toined adjacent the as shown 1 t1 the location of puncture reie *e to the length oration indicating the to strike a note or r ulating the oh hemmer :ictuuti mic oi 211). pas ing to the means. Since these dcidered are well known it is not co ry epplication to s t forth the net ils oi cc .ruction thereof it will 1 ctly oh ious to ut FlHll-Bd in this hmumer action r u hori d piano is se forth in detail. The e; is indicated at &2 and the hzuzimer at is. The hammer-is actuated by i eens of the key. tl rear end of which is ljltllCittPfl at it. struction and operation of :2 horizontal it link 4-5 to an arm or le er .2 correspondng in function and nature to the lever 12 ("loscr bed above. The arm 18 travels over used to indicate the force oi Truce the con 1 no action well known it is uuiiecesszu": it in. detail any more than to shte that the hammer lieu d is connected by means of the plate which is semicircular in this instance. It will be apparentthat when th. key 44: is struck the hammer 43 will be carried upward to thereby carry the lever 12 on d arm 18 until the hammer contacts with the string suddenly bringing the lever 1 to rest. The arm 18 will however continue upward under its own inertia through a distance along the support 10" corresponding to the dynamic force used in striking the key 4-4. Through the medium of the electrical mechanism described above a record will be made upon it strip of moving paper or other medium to indicate the force of the blow pizmo action may be utilized to perform the function of the arm 12 or 12 by suitably associeting therewith an arm 18 sincethe part of the. piano action selected will act as the primary arm to carry up the secondary arm and hence we do not wish to limit ourselves to the specific manner of associating the device with a hammer shank as shown in Fig. 6 but desire to claim the association of our registering mechenisn'i with any movable part oi the piano action. It will also be noted that it is not necessary that the axes of the arm 18 and the part of the piano action associated therewith correspond is the device will operate if the axes are dislaced relative to each other. I i

in Fig. 7 another arrangement is set forth in which the key d4 is connected-directly pawl and other niecl'ianism for making c0n tact with the segment The arm 18 is mounted on the key 44 and normally rests in a lowered position upon the cushion support and it will be obvious that when the key is struck the rear end thereof is curried upwardly rapidly and when it comes to rest the arm 18 by its own inertia will be carried upwardly and the contact member 21 will engage one of the segments 15 mounted on the plate 1O which rests upon any suitable support and consequently cause actuation of the recording mechanism to indicate the force of the blow applied to the key.

We have also illustrated in Fig. 9 a modified form of mechanism used to record the force of a blow applied to a piano key when the record. or copies made are to be used in an automatic piano player not provided with a pneumatic means to vary the volume of sound. In this instance the device consists of a plate 10 carrying a plurality of segments each being electrically connected to an electromagnet L9 in circuit with a source of current and with a lever l2 which is delicately mounted and provided with a counter weight 1%. A light arm 18 corresponding in function to the arm 18 is provided to travel along the segments. fin armature 53 carrying a recording stylus 54 is provided to make a record upon the strip of moving paper 55. lhe arm 18 is provided with a pawl mechanism similar to the switch arm described above, but it is adapted to contact constantly with the segments and successively one after another both during the upward and downward movement of the arm. The arm 12 is actuated by means of a link 56 connected to a piano action or any other means desired to urge the outer end of the arm upward and it will be obvious that as the segments 15 are consecutively contacted thereby one after another of the bank of magnets 49 will be energized to attract its corresponding armature to record upon the paper and as a consequence a series of indications will be made upon the strip shown in Fig. 10.* lhus, it the blow struck was particularly hard at maximum length of indication Will be made as shown at 57 since every one of the electromagnets 49 will beenergized. 0n the other hand, if the blow is light perhaps only one or two of the electromagnets 49 will be energized and consequently the mark will be short as shown at 58." This-record may be made upon a separate strip or may be made directly upon the copy of the record to be used in the automatic player piano and the lever or other means used to move the hammer bar is manipulated. Thus, the lever to manipulate the hammer bar will be moved over to one side as far as possible when a line or the length indicated at 52, comes to view upon the record during move ment thereof, or conversely the lever will be moved over to the opposite side to a maXi-.

mum point when a short line at 58 appears. If desired a resultant curve may be inscribed upon the record which travels along or corresponds to the contour shown by the right hand end of the marks 57 and 58 and this curve may be used in connection with an indicator or other similar device employed to enable one to vary the volume of sound in automatic player pianos.

Thus, it will be seen that. We have provided a novel form of mechanism which in its essentials consists of a movable arm, delicately mounted to be carried upward by its own inertia as a result of a blow imparted directly thereto or to some associated mechanism, and a means of any type desired to record the amount of travel of the arm upon any suitable medium. How this record is utilized to practical advantage to reproduce in an automatic player piano the strength of the blow applied to each note by an artist who performs upon a recording piano does not constitute the subject matter of this application but is set forth in detail elsewhere and hence we do not desire to limit ourselves or to describe any particular mechanism for accomplishing this purpose. it is suiiicient to state that with the use 01" the registering and the recording mechanism described above in its various forms it is possible to produce a record which when reproduced into copies and said copies are used in an automatic player piano provided with the necessary pneumatic elements, will reproduce faithfully the volume of sounds originally produced by the artist in making the record or more specifically, the force of blow applied with each note, and thereby results in the production of what is. known in musical technic as expression which here tot re has not been obtained with any degree of success by ay piano recording or reproducing mechanism.

l Vhilc we have illustrated and described our invention with some degree of particularity, we realize that in practice various alterations therein may be made. We therefore reserve the right and privilege of changing the form of the details or" constructionor otherwise altering the arrangement of the correlated parts without departing from the spirit oi the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A device for indicating the dynamic force of a blow, a support, a lever pivotally mounted thereon for movement in a vertical plane, a weight on said lever to balance the same, an arm mounted for rotation about the axis of rotation of the lever and adapted when engaged by the latter to move upward to a distancecorresponding to the force of the blow applied to the lever.

2. In a device for indicating the dynamic force of a blow, a support, a lever pivotally mounted thereon for movement in a vertical 7 plane, an ad ustable weight for balancmg' the lever, an arm pivotally mounted on the support for movement about the axis of rotation of the lever, said arm normally resting upon the lever, and means for changing the center-of gravity of the arm whereby when the lever is struck the movement transmitted to the arm will cause the latter to move upward to a distance corresponding to the force of a blow.

3. In combination with a piano hammer, a elicatcly mounted movable member, and means connecting said member with the hai'mner whereby when the hammer is moved under the force of a blow the member will be moved to a distance corresponding to the force of the blow.

l. In combination with a piano hammer, a delicately mounted arm movable over a support, and means operatively connecting the he nmer with the said members-in such a manne 1 as to cause the arm to move a distance corresponding to the force of a blow applied to the piano key or said l ammer.

5. In combination with a piano hammer, a support, a delicately mounted arm movable vertically upon said support, means for varying the center of gravity thereof, and means connecting said hammer with said member whereby said member will be moved to a distance corresponding to the force of a blow when the piano key or said hammer is moved.

6. In combination with a. piano hammer, a vertical support, a balanced lever pivotally mounted thereon for movement in a vertical plane, a delicately mounted arm engaged by the lever, and means connecting said lever' with the hammer whereby when the key or hammer is struck the lever and arm will be moved upward until the hammer engages the string and the arm continues upward under its own inertia, to a distance corresponding to the force of the blow.

7. In combination with a piano including a key, of a support, a delicately mounted arm adapted for movement in a vertical plane, and means connecting said arm with the key whereby said arm will be moved to a distance corresponding to the force of a blow applied to the key.

8. In combination with a piano-including a key, an arm delicately mounted on said key for movement in a vertical plane whereby when the key is struck said arm will be moved by its own inertia to a distance corresponding to the force of the blow.

9."In a piano, the combination with the key and action of a delicately mounted arm mounted on the key for movement in a ver tical plane whereby when one end of the key is depressed and the arm carrying end elevated and the hammer strikes the string the arm will be carried by its own inertia to a distance corresponding to the force of the blow.

10. In a recording device, a weighted lever mounted for oscillation, a delicately mounted switch arm movable by said lever, a plurality of contacts in the path of movementof said arm, a plurality of electrical recording mechanisms one for each contact associated therewith, said arm being movable on the in'ipact across the contact, and means operable when the arm comes to rest for engaging the same against the adjacent contact member to complete a circuit through the associated recording mechanism.

1.1. In a recording mechanism, a weighted lever mounted for oscillation, a delicately mounted switch arm and carried by said lever, a plurality of contacts in the path of movement 01". the arm, said arm being also movable laterally toward and away from the contact, aplurality of electrically operable recording mecaanisms one for each contact in circuit-therewith, means "for engaging the lever to act by impact and rebound to cause the switch arm to travel across the faces of the contacts, to a distance corresponding to the force or. the impact, and means operable when the switch arm has come to rest and begins to return to immediately move the switch arm laterally to engage the same against an adjacent contact to complete the circuit through the associated recording mechanism.

19'. In a recording mechanism, a plurality of spaced segments, a balanced lever switch arm carried b the lever and ada fed to sweep across the face of the contacts, said arm being movable laterally, a pawl carried by said arm, a flange forming a guide for the pawl, and a plurality of electrically op erable recording mechanisms, one for each contact in circuit therewith whereby when the switch arm and lever are moved upwardly and saidarm begins to return after reaching its limit of movement said pawl will oscillate to direct the arm laterally to engage an adjacent contact and thereby complete a. circuit to its associated recording mechanism.

13. A recording device, a vertical plate, an overhanging flange along the edge of said plate, a balanced lever a delicately mounted switch arm carried by the lever a plurality of contacts adjacent the flange, said flange having a plurality of notches one notch opposite each contact, a plurality of electrically operable recording mechanisms one in circuit with each segment and in common circuit with the flange, and a pawl mounted on the arm and normally engaging the notched surface of the flange whereby when the arm and lever are urged i upwardly and the arm begins to return after reaching its limit of movement said pawl will engage in an adjacent notch and direct the arm laterally against an adjacent contact to complete a circuit through the associated recording device.

14. In a recording mechanism, a delicately mounted member, a plurality of contacts in the path of movement of the arm, aplurality of electrically operable recordsame against the contact to complete the circuit through an associated recording mechamsm.

V in an indicating device, a lever, adjustable means for balancing the same, an arm mormted for movement about the center of movement of the lever, a spring engaging the arm to retain the same in engagement with the lever, and means for changing the center of gravity oi the arm.

16. In an indicating device, a primary arm mounted for oscillation, adjustable means for balancing the same, a secondary armmounted for moven'ient about the center of oscillation of the primary arm, an adjustable spring engaging the secondary arm to retain the latter in engagement with the primary arm, means for varying the center of gravity of the secondary arm, the primary arm when struck being adapted to carry the secondary arm with it, and means for limiting such movement of the primary reeaeee arm whereby the secondary arm may be carried along by its own inertia to register the extent of movement or the impact receiving device to select one of said record ing mechanisms and to actuate the same.

18. A strip of record receiving medium, a plural' oi? recording mechanisms to record upon said strip at various points upon one margin of the strip to the other, an impact receiving member, and means operable upon movement of said impact receiving member and in proportion thereto to select and operate one oi the recording mechanisms whereby a mark will be applied upon the medium and by its position relative to the margin of the strip indicate the force of the impact. 7

in testimony whereof we aiiix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

JOSEPH KLEPAG. V JAKE-Y KVARDA. Witnesses W. N. ZEAMAN, G Pn'rnmo. 

